Your thoughts on current music

[firbeck 859]

I appear to have got in to trouble by slagging off the music we were spoon fed on the Children in Need programme. That is history now, lets move on, well not quite.

I'm very passionate about music, it's in the genes, my father played trombone for a brass band in Nottingham before the war, graduating to the Royal Artillery swing band in 1940, my mother played piano. My missus plays classical guitar, she once played in a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, I used to be a mean guitarist myself until I stopped practising everynight, but we have a large collection of guitars, a banjo, Yamaha keyboard and a lovely accordion. My missus' cousin and pal is Jo O' Mara from S Club, so we know all about the underhand dealings, money, not, and general manipulation for the so called good of all.

I was a kid in the fifties when after the great swing period of the 40's, music got into a trough until it was brought to life by Elvis, in his Sun Records period that is, and the great Buddy Holly, my brothers favourite, a brilliant singer songwriter, where would we be without him and what a waste of an early life sadly cut off in a tragic accident. We went back into the doldrums again, as Lennon said,'Elvis died when he joined the army'. Then we were lifted back into creativity by the Beatles and what came after, of whatever genre.

With many hiccups, it's gone on until today, now things seem to be different.

As far as I'm concerned, everything presented to the public is promoted by rich men, companies, the media in all it's forms, wanting to make a fortune whether these people have any talent or not. Boy and girlbands are rich pickings for scandal as far as the Sun and Star are concerned arne't they. Yes, it was all about that in a sense in the past, but please don't compare that dickhead Louie Walsh to Brian Epstein, he's not worthy of polishing Epsteins boots, anyone who gave the world Westlife really needs putting down in a bucket of water. We are bombarded by TV talent shows where people are voted for by their appearance, age, or ability to tell a good sob story.

It's not just in popular music either, we get swamped with the amazing talent of Kathryn Jenkins, constantly, she's on all the time, the fact that she's a nice girl, attractive, blonde and with big tits may have something to do with this, I gather that she's never proffesionally sung in an opera in her life, my missus could blow her off the stage vocally, I once saw her sing with Leslie Garrett, a proper singer, and get destroyed, it was embarressing for poor Kathryn, is she being told that she's brilliant, probably, but she's not, but she sells a lot of Xmas albums so thats ok.

The worst one is Russell Watson, he is such an arrogant obnoxious scumbag with very little talent but fortunate to have fallen into the lap of some grabbing promoter whose told him he's great and who is making money out of nothing, I like his new Xmas album, Russell tries to emulate the great Frank Sinatra, give me strength, I wonder whether he's even heard of him.

Thats another thing, desperate to show these inept peoples talents, you get these sad, spotty kids, wearing oversized suits, hair like Tin Tin, who get persuaded by people like Walsh, that they are amazing swing singers and after a dire performance are told by the great man that it was the best performance after Sinatra he'd ever heard, don't make me laugh, it's all about money, not talent, and people like Walsh know it, unfortunately the public believe it and vote for these sad kids who actually think they themselves are good, but eventually will go the way of Jo from S Club and end up virtually losing everything that they never actually earned because the sharks took it off them in the first place.

Popular music was always a dodgey issue, but the parameters seem to have got extended, the business at the moment is just dictated by appalling TV talent shows, wealthy promoters and the gutter press, who treat the public like morons, we are forced to see the same people whether we like them or think that they are any good, which most of them aren't. I'm just listening to Dave Gilmour on Planet Rock, perhaps McFly should listen to him and crawl back under the stone from where they came from and deserve to be, but what do I know.....over to you.

[Ashley 288]

I have become comfortably numb

[zab 47]

X-factor and all it's variations is something I hate, all it does is feed the purse of Cowell and the TV companies and creates a minor star that might last a year or two. It does absolutely nothing in terms of moving music forward or educating the viewer of the music that is out there.

I think the music scene is quite vibrant with the likes of Arcade Fire, Goldfrapp, Okkervil River and the Secret Machines

[Beefsteak 305]

I hate the X factor and all it produces, I never watch it .Just the first couple of episodes to have a good laugh at all the gulible suckers who believed their mates one drunken Karaoke session, when they informed them that they could sing!!!

I think you're wrong to slag off some one who clearly has the talent to recognise a way of making money out of the said gulible suckers.

As for your missus being able to blow Kathryn Jenkins offstage vocally , how many albums has she sold ?? sell out tours has she done ??

Any body got that F****ng big box???

[.... 23]

There's an awful lot to reply to to in your post, Firbeck. for what it's worth I'm generally in agreement with much of what you say, save to say that most people - maybe people like you and I - do not look to the X-Factor for the future of music. These kind of programs mean nothing in the world of 'real' music.

I was interested in your attack on Russell Watson. I'm certainly no admirer of his (very ordinary in my opinion,) talents but never saw him as arrogant, obnoxious nor a 'scumbag' when interviewed on TV etc. Do you know differently?

[denshaw 2,872]

Out of all the talent shows in the last few years, X factor, Britains got talent, Pop idol etc there have only been 2 decent singers produced. All these sob stories about their lives should be irrelevant.

Den.

[Fynger 841]

errr...is there any music today....hmmmm....not to my ears there aint